When three began two  Hall Family
by Sophie Capulet
Summary: Why did Sophie's mother leave her? In Verona we see her as a beautiful confident young lady but what if as a child, Sophie Hall wasnt the way her mother had wanted and planned for her to be.
1. The Hall Family

The water rippled as she splashed her way through the puddle, sending droplets of dirty rain water over her neat black leather shoes and up her white knee high socks. The little girl of six years old would have looked too young to be walking the streets of New York alone through the eyes of a passer – by but she was perfectly happy to walk the two blocks from her West Street private school for girls to the office block where her father worked. Sophie looked up at the rain clouds forming over her head and nodded to herself, turning on her heel and running down the walkway as the rain began to fall once more adding to the puddles already on the damp ground. Her golden blonde ringlet curls bounced as she ran trying to hold her red duffle coat closed tightly whilst holding the matching red felt beret on her head. The rain came heavily and soon the small girl was dripping wet and cold. Her mother would not be pleased.

Arriving at the Brooke street offices, Sophie ran inside and dashed up the stairs as fast as her small legs could carry her. She wanted nothing more than a hug for her daddy. She ran along the corridor towards his office, leaving little wet footprints behind her as she reached his office, entering to find him on the phone. She shivered and walked in slowly. "Daddy" She whispered. Her father, Matthew, heard her sweet little whisper and looked up. Seeing her standing there, soaking wet and shivering, he quickly stopped his phone call and moved around his desk to pick her up.

"Aww my poor baby, all wet and cold" He said soothingly. Sophie nodded and pouted. Matthew smiled and removed her wet clothes, dressing Sophie in his spare shirt which was long enough to be a dress for his little girl. He knew that her mother would not approve but he didn't want Sophie to be standing around in soaking wet clothing. Once she was changed, Matthew sat with Sophie on his lap and listened as she told him sweet little stories that she had came up with. She was a creative child and Matthew always said she had a way with words for a child so young.

A couple of hours had passed before Karen, Sophie's mother who was a powerful New York lawyer, walked through the door with a stern look upon her face. She looked to Sophie wearing her father's spare shirt and she scoffed pulling a disgusted face as if she had smelt something that made her stomach turn.

"Why is she wearing that? Where is her uniform? She's wet, her hair is an absolute mess" She scowled looking her daughter up and down.

"It was raining when she walked here Karen, my poor girl was soaked through and I wouldn't leave her standing around in wet clothing now. Her uniform is drying over there and I'm sorry that her hair is a mess but I don't carry a hair brush around with me everywhere I go" Matthew replied in an irritated tone.

"If it was raining when she left school, you should have been there to pick her up. Our daughter cannot go around looking like a drowned rat" Karen said picking Sophie up. "The Hall family has a reputation to uphold"

Matthew rolled his eyes and stood up, gathering Sophie's clothing and preparing to leave work deciding not to argue back to Karen. She may say that he should have been at the School to pick up Sophie but had insisted that Sophie should be an independent healthy little girl and walk from school to the office every day. Her mother was used to a wealthy lifestyle and had a very certain idea about how she wanted her daughter to be raised.

Privileged? Yes she was. From the moment Sophie was born, she was treated like royalty. The Hall family home was grand and stood in the centre of the Oxford lane estate, private compared to the other houses crammed side by side down the long wealthy lane. Sophie had a large bedroom with a wide bay window that overlooked the estate, and she had all the things that a little girl would want. She had all the latest toys, her room full with posh dolls and technology you would not expect a child to understand. This was just the life that Sophie was used too. There was one thing that this lifestyle had lead Sophie to be and that was independent. Both her parents worked a lot, especially her mother and her mother always encouraged her daughter to be more and more independent from a young age saying that it was the best way to get far in life.

The house was always neat and tidy, a habit Sophie followed. She tried to keep everything tidy and insisted that she was a perfectionist from the moment she learnt what the word meant. She was intelligent and did well in school, leading her mother to set out a whole life plan for a daughter.

"You will be a lawyer just like me" She told Sophie on her fifth birthday and although she said nothing, Matthew could see that his daughter didn't approve of this idea. Sophie always hated the way her mother would come in every day and sit in her office with towers of paperwork and a serious expression upon her face. She never looked happy or looked as if she was enjoying herself. No, this isn't what Sophie wanted.

Sophie loved to write. She may have only been six but English was definitely her favourite and best subject. She always liked to write stories about various little characters in her large leather bound notebook she kept safely in her bedroom. She had always loved to read and Matthew would often find her sitting in her armchair in the family room with a book across her lap. Sometimes, she would sit herself beside him when he was reading his daily newspaper and examine the words and images carefully. She would smile reading what she could understand of it all.

"Who writes these stories" She asked one day as she sat looking at the newspaper with great interest.

"Journalists" He answered. "They research news stories and write stories about them to tell the public what is going on in the world. Some journalists write big important news stories and some write lots of different things"

Sophie smiled, satisfied with that answer. She nods her head happily and jumped down from her seat, dashing out of the room and up the staircase towards her bedroom. Closing the door behind her as if shutting herself away in her world, Sophie pulled her notebook down from the shelf and lay on her stomach on her bed with the book open in front of her. She wrote little news stories about news at school, like the fact that her maths teacher was going away to have a baby and how there was new food in the canteen. Just little things but Sophie considered this news.

She wrote, and notebook after notebook became fall with her little news stories and other writings she had doodled down. Sophie loved it, and she knew from the age of seven that she wanted to be a writer, a journalist to be precise. But of course, her mother did not approve.

"A writer? Honestly Sophie that is no dream for you to be following. You should have higher hopes then that? Writing is a job for the simple minded, it doesn't take much intelligence to write words upon a page" She scoffed over dinner one evening as Sophie revealed her writing dream to her family. "No, I tell you now no. A child like you should be focusing on a more important job, like a job in law. Yes, that is more suited to you. I raised you to be perfect, why do you think that there are so many rules in your life and in this household"

That was true. If someone was to look at Sophie, they would find a picture perfect little girl staring back at them. Her mother tried to make sure that she always looked her best, with her golden ringlet curls that laid perfectly in place and her designer clothing that made her look as if she had stepped straight out of a fashion magazine. She had started ballet at the tiny age of three years old and at first Matthew had believed that this was simply a fun activity for their daughter but really Karen had only wanted Sophie to attend the dance lessons to make sure that she had perfect posture and always stood correctly. Everything in Sophie's life was there for a reason, and although some may think that all of this is only giving her a better chance in life, some others may say that some of the rules in the life of Sophie Hall was taking rules and strict control too far. She had a private education at a school for girls, where she was taught by the best in classes with the highest form of control. Matthew didn't like the fact that is wasn't a mixed gender school as he thought that was all part of growing up and being a child, but Karen insisted that Sophie would grow up a certain way and it would be Karen's way.

Matthew would encourage his daughter's creativity and love for writing whenever Karen wasn't around. Sophie didn't like showing him her stories saying that she never felt as if finished but he didn't mind. If she was happy, he was happy. He knew she wanted to be a journalist and wanted to encourage her as much as possible.

He knew he had succeeded in encouraging her when one day when she went to his office after school, he gave her a copy of The New Yorker magazine.


	2. Falling Apart

Chapter two

The New Yorker magazine was a book of colourful glossy pages with amazing pictures and wonderful stories to match. Some were serious news stories for the city; there were also articles on fashion, movies, theatre, food and the light-hearted life columns that commented on whatever they wanted too. Sophie was amazed as she took the magazine from her father and sat down in the leather chair opposite his desk. She kicked off her shoes and her duffle coat, leaving her felt hat balanced on her head as she leant back and began to read.

She was drawn into the stories instantly, thinking about how amazing it would be to write stories like this. Matthew watched her happily, wishing that his little girl could have her dream without her mother's disapproval. He couldn't understand why she was so strict about the rules and how Sophie had to be. He remembered that when she was born, both Matthew and Karen thought the absolute world of her and thought that there was no one more perfect then Sophie on this planet and there never would be. Things changed when Sophie was about 18 months old, Karen would come home from work and Sophie would want to play with her mommy when Karen insisted on working away in her office until Sophie went to bed.

"Matthew, please keep Sophie occupied, you play with her I have important work to do" She would say. As soon as Sophie was old enough to understand, rules were put into place to make Sophie behave herself. Matthew sometimes thought that these strict rules were pulling Sophie's childhood away from and forcing her to act older then she was.

Whenever Sophie came to his office after school, he would allow her to do whatever she wanted. He put games on his laptop, kept sweets in his briefcase and kept toys hidden in the cupboards for her. When she was with just him, she could be a normal little girl. Sophie kept a small leather bound notebook in her school bag that Matthew had secretly brought her one day along with the New Yorker, he hated to think what would happen if Karen found out he encouraging Sophie to become a journalist. Whenever Sophie was occupied by something else, Matthew would read her stories. They were wonderful for a child of eight years old.

Walking into the living room, Sophie dumped her bag on the table and dashed upstairs to her bedroom. Karen scoffed angrily watching her go then turning to her bag on the table.

"That stupid child, she knows what I have told her. Her bag has to go on the hook in the hall way." She sighed opening it. "She never lets me see what is in here anyway". Karen looked inside and her face turned red with anger. Inside there was screwed up sweet wrappers, a copy of the New Yorker magazine and her notebook. She pulled out the notebook and the magazine and turned to Matthew.

"I told you, stop filling her head with these ideas of journalism because it is simply not going to happen Matthew. I will not allow it. The New Yorker is a rotten trash and I'm sure that Sophie's stories are the same. She will never be good enough to write for decent important newspapers so she will not write at all." She ranted lighting the fire and throwing the magazine and the notebook into the flames. Both were unaware that Sophie was watching from the staircase.

"How dare you Karen, Sophie loves the New Yorker and she loves to write. Her stories are amazing and she is amazing. Why can't you just be proud of what she is "Matthew snapped storming along to the kitchen, where he then noticed Sophie on the stairs.

"My stories daddy" She whimpered turning and running to her room, slamming the door shut.

"Sophie Baby" Matthew called but he received no answer. Matthew knew then that the Hall family was falling apart. He scowled viscously at Karen and slowly walked up the stairs towards Sophie's bedroom. Leaning against the door frame, he knocked. "Sophie come on let me in" he said softly. After a while of repeating this, Sophie opened the door and peered up at him tearfully.

"Why did mommy do that daddy" She asked.

Matthew sighed and picked her up, sitting on the bed with her wrapped his in arms. "She doesn't like Stories baby, she doesn't think you should write them but you keep doing what you want too and I will handle mommy"

Sophie nodded clambering down from his lap and laying in her bed with her larger notebook. Matthew looked around to peer at what she was writing but Sophie threw her little body over the book so he couldn't possibly see. She didn't giggle like she normally would when hiding her writing but she stared at him with sadness and hatred in her eyes. What Karen had done had really hit her hard. Matthew bit his lip and quickly left her there in her room alone to calm herself down.

Karen was in the kitchen preparing dinner as if nothing had happened. To her she had been simply setting the ground rules by throwing the magazine and the notebook into the fire, but to Matthew she did it to try and pull Sophie's dreams away from her as if it was all bad for her. No, what Karen was doing was bad for her. Sophie was becoming quieter under her mother's rule and sometimes Matthew could see fear in her eyes when Karen went to her. She was giving in to the rules, only writing in her room when no one could see her. She was only happy when she was at school or with Matthew in his office.

Sophie sat on her bed in her room one evening when both Karen and Matthew were downstairs, silent after another argument. She jumped off her bed and over to the corner of the bedroom where she opened a floorboard, peeling it up from the floor. Her little secret. She had noticed the broken floor board when she had been practising her ballet at the bar on that side of the room and found that there was an empty space below when she pulled the board away. She kept it a secret from both her mother and her father, finding this empty space the perfect place to hide things. She kept some notebooks down there along with her favourite copies of the New Yorker. No matter what Karen said, Sophie was determined to take Matthew's encouragement and become a journalist for the New Yorker.


	3. Over the edge

As Sophie turned nine, things in the Hall household had gone from bad to worse. Matthew and Karen didn't talk anymore, they only argued. And most of the time, they argued about Sophie. Karen was trying to enforce more and more rules upon their young daughter, but Sophie had found a rebellious stubborn streak somewhere within herself and was beginning to refuse.

"Sophie, I have reached the end of my tether with this stupid journalism dream of yours" She snapped. "I want you to go upstairs and bring down all of your notebooks and any copies of that stupid magazine you may be hiding up there"

Sophie peered up at her. She may have been stubborn and she may have been rebellious but her mother's sharp words still hurt her. She couldn't understand why her mother hated her so much. To her, Sophie couldn't see anything wrong with wanting to be a writer but her mother simply despised the idea. Sophie looked around the room, as if looking for her father's support. He wasn't there; he had gone out, reluctantly leaving his little girl completely in her controlling mother's care.

"Go on Sophie, you silly girl, go now. Do what you are told by your mother" She hissed looking over her reading glasses with a cold hearted glare in her eyes.

Hot salty tears welled in Sophie's big blue eyes and she shook her head rapidly. "No, they are mine" She cried. "You can't have them"

"What was that Sophie?" Karen snapped. "Are you refusing me?" The words were like venom, poisonous and sharp as they slipped off of her tongue.

"Yes!" Sophie cried, wiping her eyes furiously with her hands, clenched into little fists in her anger and sadness. "Yes I am!" She leaped down from her seat and turned on her heel, turning her back on her mother which Karen saw as an ultimate show of disrespect. She ran up the stairs and into her room, she was afraid as she pushed herself against the wooden door in attempt to hear if her mother was following her up the stairs or not.

She heard it. The loud tapping of Karen's high heels shoes against the hard wooden floor along the hallway. The sound of the footsteps got faster, matching the rapid beating of Sophie's heart. Scared and not knowing what to do, she leant as heavily as she could against the door to try and stop Karen from opening it. Sophie was only small, and light for that matter. As the footsteps drew closer and closer, Sophie held her hands against her ears and cried. How she wanted her daddy then.

Karen pushed the door, sending her daughter skidding across the floor with the force. "How dare you? How dare you disobey your mother you little rat" She hissed stepping closer and closer to Sophie. The little girl backed away, terrified and shaking as she stepped away from Karen with tears pouring down her cheeks.

Through her eyes, her mother was a monster. She had the hissing tongue of a snake; her words of hatred were venom to match the tongue they poured from. She had the height of a giant, towering over Sophie with her high heeled shoes only adding to her. She had the strength of a predator and Sophie was sure she was now the pray. That was the monster that Sophie saw whenever she looked at her mother. She clenched her hands tight around the wooden windowsill of her open window, holding on as if the wooden ledge was her last chance for safety and stability.

"All your life, yes that's right Sophie all your life, I have raised you to be a polite, poised, well mannered, intelligent and correct little girl who will grow up to be a wonderful member of society as a famous lawyer. But your wrong, what happened to following my rules huh?" Karen spat staring down at Sophie.

Sophie sniffled, wiping her eyes quickly before hanging onto the windowsill again. "I don't want to be a lawyer, it's boring and dull. And I am smart, I get A*'s in my subjects and I am learning Latin" She said, trying to be as strong as she possibly could. "I want to be a journalist"

Karen scoffed. "Journalists are low paid, brain dead idiots who sit at their computers all day long" She said standing right in front of Sophie.

Matthew came up the driveway and got out of the car, pausing when he saw Sophie back first to her window with Karen looming over her. He bit down on his lip.

"You are brain dead" Sophie said to her mother. "Im not and you spend your days sitting in an office, paperwork all around you. You never play with me, you hate me!"

For a moment, Karen's eyes blazed like fire with pure anger. Her hands came down upon Sophie and her nails, like dagger sharp talons, dug into Sophie's shoulders making the young girl whimper and the tears come again. To Karen, Sophie had transformed from a child into a child's toy rag doll as she shook her as if trying to shake some of her sense into her.

Matthew watched in horror, wanting to move and save his little girl but his feet were stuck like glue to the ground in fear. He looked up and caught Karen's eye.

In the deep green of her eyes, he saw a flicker of murder.

"No!" He yelled, his scream being lost as it seemed time slowed in the moment. Karen gave one almighty push, sending Sophie back. Her body twisted as she tumbled over the window sill meeting the roofing tiles on the veranda roof with a crash. She screamed, her tiny body falling down the roof towards the edge.

Karen watched, her eyes wide as Matthew and Sophie screamed.


	4. Ive got you

**Authors note: Hello everyone. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the really long delay on this update. I suffered from terrible writers block as well as the chaos of work. I would like to thank Diablo Priest for their review along with anyone else who has reviewed. And now on with chapter three of When three became two:Hall family**

Karen watched her eyes wide as Matthew and Sophie screamed. 

Sophie's little body twisted and turned as she tumbled down the roof of the veranda and Matthew felt his world shatter around him as he saw his baby girl near the edge. Her eyes were clenched shut tight and her arms waved around searching for something to stop her fall, searching for a lifeline to save her. 

"Hold on!" Matthew yelled seeing her hands near the guttering. "Sophie! Hold on!"  
Sophie's hands grabbed the plastic guttering as her body dangled below her. Tears slid down her smooth cheeks as she screamed and screamed. "Daddy help me! Help me!" The sharp edge of the gutter cut into her soft skin of her fingers and the sight of her own blood only made her scream more. 

Karen watched Sophie dangling from the roof edge, a dark smirk spreading along her thin blood red lips and she flashed a pearly white smile. "Drop my dear girl" She smirked. "A little girl like you never deserved to live" 

Matthew watched in horror as Sophie dangled from the guttering, her legs thrashing from side to side. He ran forward trying to stand underneath her. He saw her little hands slipping on the plastic and knew she couldn't hold on much longer. 

"Sophie! My baby girl" He cried holding his arms up. "Let go, I'm going to catch you!"  
Sophie peered down at him, her eyes red and puffy as she screamed. "I'm scared" She sobbed kicking against the pillars of the veranda, knocking one of her black leather shoes clean off of her foot. Matthew caught the shoe and threw it the floor. "I'm going to catch you baby!" He called. "Daddy's going to catch you" 

Closing her bright blue tear filled eyes and biting down hard on her lip, Sophie let go of the guttering and slipped into free fall from the second floor roof. Matthew could see his daughter's whole life flicker before his eyes as he watched her falling. His arms were open ready to catch her and he never let her out of his sight, not for one single second. 

He cried out in relief as his arms swung out, grabbing Sophie as soon as she came into reach and pulling her in close to his chest. It had seemed like she had been falling for days and as he wrapped her up in his arms, Sophie had never seemed so small.

Sophie shook violently in his arms, her little arms and legs wrapped around him and her tears soaking the shoulder of his shirt. Her pale pink dress was ripped and dirtied and her hands were cut and blood stained. 

Karen came strolling out of the house with a bag tossed over her shoulder. She smiled as if nothing had happened and walked past Matthew and Sophie. She smirked. "That rat of a child had a lucky escape; I don't know what you see in her. She's no child of mine!" Her eyes were wide and her smile was dark. Matthew held Sophie as close as he could. "Get away, get away I'm calling the police" He spat staring into her cold deathly glare. 

She smirked walking down her pathway and climbing into her car. "They will never find me, I'm not Karen Hall anymore, you'll be receiving the divorce papers tomorrow. I was hoping that they would have come with a death certificate for your precious little girl but the rat lived on. That isn't to say that she will live to see old age" She said with a sinister chuckle that would match the cackle of a fairy tale villain. "Sophie Madeline Hall, watch your silly little step and stay close to daddy. You're lucky to be alive" 

With that, Karen was gone. She drove away as if today was any other humdrum day, smiling at her family as if she was mother of the year. She had murder coursing through her very veins and her own hate campaign was focused on destroying the life of her own little girl. 

Matthew rubbed his cheek softly against Sophie's smooth golden curls and held her head close to his shoulder. "Shh, she's gone now. She is never coming back. It's just going to be me and you now." He whispered only to be answered by whimpers and a whisper of 'Daddy'. Wrapping his coat around her trembling body, he walked into the house with her in his arms. "This is the last time we are going to enter this house. I promise Sophie." He said. "We are going to get a new house, new everything, and you get to choose everything" 

Sophie looked up at him and put her tiny bloody hands on his cheeks. "No more monster mom, just you and me?" She whispered. He nodded and kissed her head in his own silent promise. "Do... do I get to be a writer?" She asked and he chuckled to her. "Yes my sweet girl, now you can be anything you want to be" He said as he carried her into her bedroom and grabbed a few empty boxes. 

"Help me pack up everything that you want baby girl" He said. "Then we will go, stay in a hotel until we get a new house". Sophie nodded silently. "Will it be as nice as this house?" She asked. "No" Matthew smiled packing up her copies of the New Yorker. "It will be nicer". A big bright smile spread across her face. "Daddy can we have a house near central park, near West land Avenue" She asked. "Its so pretty there"

Matthew smiled and ruffled her hair. "Anything for my little princess" He said as together they packed up the last of her and his belongings. Sophie followed him like a lost puppy as he walked back and forth packing everything into the car, a little hand wrapped into the fabric of his shirt. He smiled reassuringly to her and wiped her teary eyes. "Dot be scared Soph, you've got me, ill protect you and you know it" He whispered. He looked around checking that he had everything they needed. He nodded and smiled to himself. "And now my most important belonging"

"Whats your most important possession daddy?" Sophie smiled looking up at him with her big beautiful blue eyes.

He laughed swinging down and picking her up, wrapping her safely in his arms as he simply said. "You"


	5. Pushing away

**I would like to apologise for the length of time that it has taken me to update this story. Things are getting so busy and hectic and I just wish that I had more time to relax and to write. **

Chapter 5 – One month later

Matthew sighed walking up the stairs towards his daughter's bedroom. Since the incident with her murderous mother, Sophie had become a silent shadow of her former self. She did not tend to speak as much as she used too and Matthew had not heard her laughter for days. Sophie preferred to keep to herself, shut away in her bedroom, writing. It was not uncommon for him to come home to see Sophie sitting at the kitchen bar, the most recent copy of the New Yorker open in front her, with neat organised piles of paper laid in an orderly fashion around her. That passion for words had increased and her writing had developed to a standard high above her own age. He was proud but worried for his darling little girl.

"Sophie" He said opening the door to her bedroom. The little girl peered up at her from behind her magazine, looking much older than nine. Her hair was pulled back in a high pony tail, tied with a dark blue ribbon and she wore her school blazer over a white shirt. He looked around the room and bit his lip. Papers, fully covered in her neat handwriting, were pinned up on the wall, one after another as if placed in some sort of chronological order. "What are these papers darling?" He asked.

"Stories daddy" She said. "Isn't is obvious".

Matthew stared blankly at the child for a moment and nodded. "Of course… But what are they about?"

Sophie put her magazine down and went to him. "My friend Louise, daddy, and her mommy". Venom laced her pronunciation of the word 'mommy' as if the word itself tasted bitter to her. Matthew was confused and silenced. Since the incident, Sophie had not been out of their new home without him and he had no memory of a girl named Louise, or her mother.

"Where did you meet them, Sophie?" He asked lifting her onto his lap.

She squirmed in his arms. "At the mall daddy" She snapped. "Now, daddy let me go. I have to finish my story"

Matthew stared at his daughter as if he now longer knew who she was. He had taken her to the mall only three days before and had lost sight of her in a crowd. He could not describe the panic that overcame him when he searched for her, eventually finding her again in the security office. He didn't think she had encountered anyone from the moment he lost her to the moment that they were reunited. "No, Sophie" He said firmly. "I need you to tell me straight. Who are Louise and her mum?"

"I met them daddy, at the mall. Louise was lost too, we stayed together and her mommy found us. Because her mommy cared, you see" She said sliding out of her father's hold and walking across the room, sitting on the short set of stairs from the main bedroom into the second 'play room' through the open doorway. "You don't have to believe me, but I don't lie"

"Sophie Hall" He said. "I know that this has been an extremely difficult time for you recently, what with what has happened with your mother. But I do not expect for you to speak to me like this and behave like this."

"I am being me" She said. "Writing my stories, like you like me to do. Why are you acting as if you do not believe me daddy?"

"Because I didn't meet these people. And I always not you not to speak to people that you do not know" He said looking at her from across the room. She looked so grown up, as if she had suddenly aged with this trauma she had experienced.

"It doesn't matter" Sophie said picking up her notebook. "Louise is my friend, she made me laugh, saying that her fiery red hair would lead the way home like the North Star. I want to write about her and about her mommy, and one day … And one day these stories could be published. A journalist."

Matthew sighed. "I just now know Sophie. A journalist does not make up stories, they tell the truth. The New Yorker would not publish a story that you may or may not of made up. They would have fact checkers look over it, and if it was made up, you would be in a lot of trouble"

Sophie scowled and looked down her nose at him. "I am not a liar, I am not in trouble. These are my stories, they are true!"

"Don't you dare shout at me Sophie" He said firmly. "Listen to me, I do not want to hear anymore of these stories. I want you to write, but real journalism not stories. Do you understand me Sophie?"

"Yes!" She snapped. "Now go away, leave me alone daddy I don't want to talk to you anymore"

Matthew gave her a silent hard stare, telling her to behave, before leaving the room. He wanted to believe her, he really did, but he knew she had a highly active imagination. In the light of her recent trauma, she could have convinced herself that these friends were real in order to give herself some comfort, some normality back into her young life. He sighed sitting in the lounge, picking up a copy of the New Yorker. This was his baby's dream, and he had to support it for her sake more than his own. He didn't understand his daughter sometimes, he didn't know how her mind worked. She used to appear so simple and so easily understandable.

Every evening, she used to come straight in from school and go to him. She would sit with him, reading the newspaper or reading the magazine. Admittedly, she may never have let him read her stories, but at least she was sharing the experience with him. Now, she just goes straight to her bedroom, hiding everything, developing an attitude that he did not understand. She was stubborn, strong, angry and independent as if she was trying to push him away.


End file.
